Cal Bears Beat UCLA Bruins for Sixth Straight Win

The Cal Bears continued their home dominance on Thursday, beating the UCLA Bruins to improve to 17-0 in their friendly confines.

Sometimes, overall records don’t paint the entire picture, and it’s all about peaking at the right time. The Cal Bears sure do seem to be peaking at the right time. They’ve now recorded six consecutive wins after beating the UCLA Bruins on Thursday night, 75-63.

The Bears controlled the opening tip, and after freshman forward Ivan Rabb was fouled driving to the rim, he sunk a free throw to give Cal a 1-0 lead. A little later, fellow freshman Jaylen Brown nailed a three-pointer to make it 4-0. Then it was 6-0. Then it was 8-1. Then it was 10-1. Then it was 13-1, and UCLA head coach had to call a timeout just four and a half minutes into the game.

After the timeout, UCLA made their own run, bringing the score to 14-9 in Cal’s favor before Bears’ head coach Cuonzo Martin had to call a timeout of his own. Junior guard Jabari Bird answered back immediately for the Golden Bears, hitting a three-pointer just seconds back into action following the brief break. Bird would hit two more from long-range before halftime, all part of his team-leading nine points at the break. Brown also entered the half with nine points, as well as recording six rebounds.

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Despite that, UCLA hung tough and dug in their heels after the slow start. The Bruins crawled as close as five before the half, and went into the locker room at halftime down by eight, 33-25.

The second half kicked off with a little weirdness, as the shot clock started early on a Cal inbound, and when the shot clock violation wiped out Wallace’s made two-pointer, the refs took a long time watching the cameras to see if the clock was operated properly. After the review, they decided that Wallace’s shot would count, as it would have if the clock was operated correctly.

That weird series of events got Cal started on a 9-2 run to start the second half, pushing their lead to 15, their biggest of the night. The Bruins continued to climb back, not letting a big deficit get them downtrodden. Junior point guard Bryce Alford caught a bit of fire in the second half, driving efficiently and hitting multiple three-pointers to spark UCLA’s comeback attempt.

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UCLA and Cal traded baskets for a time, with the lead hovering around 10 points until the six-minute mark, when the Bruins cut the lead down to a very slim four points. A lay-up from Brown and a jumper from Jordan Mathews pushed the lead back to eight. With just under two and a half minutes to play, Bird’s mid-range jumper put the Bears back up by nine, and his long three-pointer gave them a 12-point edge. UCLA’s deficit reached 14 in the final minute, a hole from which the Bruins could not climb, as Cal was ahead 75-63 when the final whistle was blown.

Bird, the Pac-12 Player of the Week two weeks ago, paced Cal with 20 points, his third 20-point contest during the last five games. Brown scored 16 and added 10 rebounds, marking his fourth double-double of his freshman season. Senior Tyrone Wallace put in 14 points and pulled down 10 rebounds himself, giving him his second double-double of the year. Rabb scored 10 points with six rebounds.

Off the bench, sophomore big man Kameron Rooks continued his fine play, scoring six points and grabbing six rebounds, also adding an assist and a block while protecting the rim very well. Jordan Mathews scored five points, including moving up into a tie for fourth on Cal’s career list for three-pointers with his 183rd deep ball. Sam Singer also scored two points off the bench.

Cal’s six-game winning streak is their longest of the season, surpassing a five-game streak they accumulated earlier in the year. During the win streak, they’ve shot 49.4 percent from the field overall, and a balmy 43.5 percent from beyond the arc. Their opponents are shooting just 40.9 percent, including a very low 27.7 percent from three-point range.

Their home court dominance continues, as they are now 17-0 in Haas Pavilion at Berkeley. Their defeat of UCLA is their 20th win of the year, making this their fourth 20-win season in five years, and their sixth in eight years.

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The Golden Bears improve to 10-5 within the Pac-12, moving into a tie for third place with the Arizona Wildcats. Utah’s Thursday victory over Arizona State moves them into second place at 11-5, just a half-game behind the 11-4 Oregon Ducks. Cal’s Pac-12 schedule continues on Sunday, when they play host to the Trojans from USC (19-8, 8-6) in their final home game at Haas Pavilion this season.